Narayana (Hitopadesa)

Narayana is the name given as the author or compiler of the Hitopadesa, the Sanskrit "Book of Good Counsel", a collection of animal fables and maxims in prose and verse, drawn in large part from the older Panchatantra. Nothing secure is known of his life, and the date of the work is uncertain.

The verses printed here are the proverbs of the Hitopadesa as selected and rendered by Sir Edwin Arnold, who first published them in 1861 as the Book of Good Counsels.